Politics of Tuesday, 10 February 2015
Source: citifmonline.com
A disqualified aspirant for the position of Assemblyman, Benjamin Eyi Mensah has dragged the Electoral Commission to Court for failing to include him in the upcoming District Assembly election.
Benjamin Eyi Mensah was disqualified from the race on grounds of late submission of nomination forms.
According to his lawyer, Alex Afenyo-Markin, who is Member of Parliament for Effutu, all attempts to compel the EC to include his client in the process proved futile hence the decision to go to court.
Mr Mensah, who picked his forms and duly completed them for submission on Monday, December 22, 2014 was informed by both the District Electoral Officer and the Returning Officer that the filing of nominations closed on Sunday, December 21, 2014 at 5pm.
However, in a letter written to the EC, Afenyo-Markin argued that the EC’s decision to open and close nominations at the said date was inconsistent and in contravention of Article 45(b) and 51 of the 1992 Constitution.
Afenyo-Markin further stated that the EC’s decision was “not fortified by law.”
In a writ of summons which joined the Attorney Generals Department to the suit and cited by citifmonline.com, Mr Mensah is seeking the court to “order the Electoral Commission to [re] open nominations to enable the Plaintiff and other law abiding citizens…to file their nomination forms to participate in the upcoming District Assembly Elections.”
Mr Mensah according to the document is a fisherman seeking to contest as Assemblyman for the Eyipeh Electoral Area within the Effutu District in the Central Region.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission has slated the District Assembly and Unit Committee Elections on March 3, 2015.